Saturday, March 31, 2012

MHR Colony pt. 4 ~ Mazel Tov!!!

Hey ya'll 

it seems that April's Fool has become a rather momentous occasion around here, and just when I was about done "celebrating" Keric's molt (which ushered in the Prankster's Holiday) it seems that another one of our little creepy crawly residence gave me another occasion to celebrate. Sometime last night (or rather, very early this morning as I only turned in for bed at 4 in the morning) it seems that one of my Madagascar Hissing Roach females decided to give birth!!! Of course you can imagine, I am quite disappointed at having missed the whole thing (must be quite a sight, watching her push out a bucket load of babies) but I knew she has because I awoke to the wonderful sight of small white roaches (no larger than one of my finger nails) scurrying about a less-frequented piece of wood on the tank. Their mother, on the other hand, was nowhere to be seen although, comparing the abdomen sizes of my females, I have a fairly good idea which one it may be. Needless to say I spent the entire morning searching the entire tank. To my dismay, I only found four in total (two of which were dead, for some reason, and appeared to have been still-born births (can that happen with roaches?!). The two that are alive seem well and healthy enough I suppose and for that, I am rather thankful. One has already matured somewhat to a brownish-grey coloration while the other is still a striking white!!! I am still curious as to whether there are any other live nymphs, hiding in the nooks and crannies, and cracks and crevices of the wood pieces around the tank. Indeed, there is no way for me to actually be sure, short of dismantling the entire set up and that is something that I do not wish to do (at the risk of upsetting or stressing out the colony). In the meantime, here's to hoping that both surviving nymphs make it to adulthood, and that there many be many more hiding around!!! 


Fingers crossed,
Cyren

1 comment:

Brittanie said...

*Gasp* It's adowable!!! *Hugs the little roachie and wishes it well* God they're absolutely PWECIOUS!! *.*